Introduction
Mergers and acquisitions tend to get ever more widespread in the turbulent globalized world of contemporary business. It is critical for modern organizations` leaders to fully understand the nature of M&A and influence they exert on different aspects of organizational strategic management and leadership (DePamphilis, 2011, p.2). The case, which is going to be analyzed in terms of the following assignment, is directly related to researching into the way “defining entity” should be designed with regard to relations with consumers and the analysis of opportunities, stemming from the merger under study. Let us proceed with analyzing the challenges related to leveraging the merger in terms of providing strategic consulting and information services for clients.
EDS` acquisition of AT Kearney was accompanied by a range of challenges. The most important concern, which was continuously emphasized in terms of business negotiations, lied in the fact that business styles of two companies were highly different, because AT Kearney had already worked out individualistic entrepreneurial approach, while EDS adheres to more bureaucratic style of leadership and management (Velamuri, 2013,p.1). Another issue was related to organizing fruitful cooperation of AT Kearney and EDS, as it was unclear whether organizations are supposed to get engaged into cross-selling of each other’s services, so that EDS can implement its strategy of creating one-stop-shop, selling consultancy services to clients, making best possible use of both organizations` best systems integration and outsourcing skills. It is worth emphasizing that cross-selling should be accompanied by compensation program, based on the studies of pre- and post-acquisition revenue of the members to the entity.
Furthermore, analysis of after-acquisition opportunities remained quite a challenging issue due to the fact that it was hard to predict acquisition’s influence on new opportunities` shaping. Particularly opportunity-related issue will be the one to focus our analysis on.
Opportunities analysis
It is evident that despite challenges related to the need to ensure alignment of organizations` business styles and strategies, `Defining Entity` got variety of opportunities in terms of gaining market share, growing the business and introducing innovative performance strategies due to the fact that merger serves as a basis for getting resources, capacities and capabilities of both organizations united in order to reach these aims (Spiro, Stanton and Rich, 2007, p.1-12).
The merger under study provided the Entity with variety of customers-related opportunities. Firstly, entity’s members get the opportunities to re-attract existing customers of each other, using different combinations of existing services. Secondly, merging their resources and capabilities, organizations get the chance to re-design existing services and create new ones (including managing to launch one-stop-shop consulting services) and apply mutual efforts to attract new customers. In this regard it is worth mentioning that creating successful ``Defining entity`` of two companies, which enjoyed stable market position and success before uniting, is a great chance to spread organizations`-related information and attract both individual and corporate clients. Furthermore, launching a unity can be considered as the opportunity to start from scratch, so companies have the chance to introduce innovations into the system of management and leadership. In this case I would advise considering the chance to practically apply quality management philosophy, so that customers` needs and wants can be exceeded (Perry, 1999,p. 20). The second aspect to be referred to is competition. The merger under study is capable of creating variety of new competitive advantage-related opportunities. First of all, the merger can allow the company attracting attention and new customers to it with the help of reframing its image and launching new services and services packages. Secondly, the merger of enterprises allows launching more comprehensive services and, therefore, meeting more customers’ needs. Introduction of new services and reframing the brand is likely to result in gaining more significant market share. The merger creates various opportunities for company’s development, including the opportunity to start more ambitious projects with the use of mutual resources and capabilities, and, what is even more important, elaborate on the development of company’s vision, mission, goals and objectives, so that new strategic framework for merged companies’ activities can be i9ntroduced and as many benefits as possible are gained. In order to use merger as a benefit, it is worth paying customers’ attention to such an event in companies’ development and emphasize its importance for ensuring quality services for customers. Launching comprehensive target-oriented media campaign, along with using sales promotion methods will be best start for existing customers to get informed about the changes in company’s activities. Furthermore, new clients can be attracted with the help of above-mentioned actions.
Conclusion
Analysis of the case study led us to the conclusion that, despite some difficulties, merger represents endless c opportunities for the development of the company, enhancing its strategy, attracting customers and, therefore, gaining competitive advantage. Nonetheless, the way the opportunities will be used is totally dependent on quality of strategic management and leadership.
References
DePamphilis, D. (2011). Mergers, acquisitions and other restructuring activities. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Perry, S.(1999). Total quality management: texts, cases and readings. London: Taylor & Francis
Spiro, R., Stanton, W., Rich, G. (2007). Management of a sales force. New York : McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Vellamuri, V. (2013). EDS’ merger with AT Kearney. Retrieved 14 October 2013 from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/962f4fe2-d517-11e2-9302-00144feab7de.html#axzz2heUs1i1O
